


Fourteen Days

by ReidFan



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Episode: s13e16 Last Gasp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-04 22:52:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14030586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReidFan/pseuds/ReidFan
Summary: the team gets together after the events of Last Gasp. minor spoiler for the episode.





	Fourteen Days

Fourteen Days

 

©mccabebabe@hotmail.com

CM fanfic, episode tag for S13E16 ‘Last Gasp’

(Team members)

K+

 

As always, thank you to Aut for being the sounding board and second set of eyes. Always appreciated.

 

************************************************************************************************

“ ** _As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma_** ”-Sri Guru Granth Sahib

*************************************************************************************************

On his left, Unit Chief Emily Prentiss was regaling Agents David Rossi and Tara Lewis about the sting operation she’d been involved with, taking down Agent Douglas Rudy. While Prentiss didn’t approve of the methods of her now-former OPR partner Agent James Odenkirk, the resulting takedown of a dirty FBI agent was satisfying.

 

Spencer Reid smiled when he heard Rossi’s hearty laughter, and his smile widened as both Lewis and Rossi countered with stories of their own. His eyebrows rose, partly in amusement, partly in agreed disgust as he heard Tara grumbling that she was a forensic psychologist, not a marriage counselor. And there was more laughter as Rossi groused about an actor not wanting to take suggestions from the writer.

 

Over to his right, Agents Matt Simmons and Luke Alvez commiserated over their mutual misery of the last fourteen days. They, along with their _conditional Unit Chief_ Jennifer Jareau seated next to Reid, had suffered the worst of all of them. On a daily basis, they’d been micromanaged by the just-deposed assistant director Linda Barnes. They’d solved exactly _no_ cases in that time and, by JJ’s count, twenty-six innocent people had died. People, who, had the BAU not had their hands tied, may have been saved if the unit had been able to investigate and apprehend their killers. Nursing their drinks, Simmons, Alvez and Jareau were now relishing the return to relative normalcy.

 

He sipped at his drink and let his mind wander into the memories of his own experiences of the last two weeks. He’d been forced into teaching. _Academia is a more natural fit for an intellect like his._ His forehead creased as he recalled Prentiss relating Barnes’ assessment of him. It was probably the only thing Barnes was right about, he decided. He _was_ a natural for teaching. And maybe someday, he conceded, he’d delve into that profession full time. But right now, he much preferred the analytical aspects of his profiling job. And he was in no way ready to leave the people he’d come to think of as family.

 

“How about you, Boy Wonder? How’d your two weeks go?”

 

The sound of Penelope Garcia posing the question brought Reid out of his reverie.

 

“I didn’t have as rough a time as you guys did,” he answered her. “But most of the students in my criminology class were just auditing.”

 

His brow furrowed when he heard both Alvez and Simmons trying to stifle laughs. Garcia didn’t even bother hiding her giggles.

 

“What?”

 

“Oh, Spencer,” Prentiss chuckled, sipping from her wine glass. “Profile the auditors.”

 

He considered that for a moment and then spoke, “Intelligent. Eager. Females. Early twenties. And they,” he paused as something dawned on him, “They were all giving me their full attention.” He sounded surprised. “You know, that’s kind of unusual. Whenever there were students auditing classes when I was in college, they were usually multi-tasking. Like, on their computers or phones. Or working on assignments for their actual classes.”

 

“We saw the tape,” Prentiss told him. She paused for a moment while he absorbed that information and Emily took the opportunity to thank Garcia for the tape. Looking around at the rest of the members, Prentiss let out a laugh and then explained, “They didn’t take their eyes off you, Spencer.”

 

“I hope you got some phone numbers,” Rossi remarked.

 

Reid’s mouth opened and closed without saying anything. He took their teasing in stride but it was an encouraging comment from JJ that touched him.

 

“I’m not surprised at all, Spence. You’re interesting, enthusiastic and you know your stuff. You’re young,” she paused, “And there’s the obvious.” She patted his arm. He was buoyed by her remark and gave her a smile and then their attention returned to the group at large.

 

Around the table the topic of discussion had already migrated to other subjects.

 

“It was kinda nice, being home at a regular time every night for the family,” Simmons told them.

 

Nodding agreement, Alvez admitted, “I enjoyed being able to take Roxy for her evening walk myself every night. Pretty sure she was starting to bond with the dog walker.”

 

It was Rossi who tabled the subject they’d all wanted to discuss.

 

“Is anyone else as disappointed as I am with what happened to Barnes?”

 

They all spoke up quickly and all said varying versions of the same thing: that being told to keep her hands off the BAU wasn’t punishment enough for Barnes’ transgressions.

 

JJ was still angry about it. “Twenty-six people died _needlessly._ Because of that—that _bitch.”_

 

“The best thing we can do is to continue to be good at our jobs. Show the director how wrong Barnes was to disband us.” Prentiss told them.

 

There were several nods of agreement and then Garcia asked, “But what’s the second best thing we can do?”

 

There was a chorus of laughter and several off-colour suggestions about Barnes’ fate and then,

 

“How does that Senator Mayhew have such an influence on the FBI anyway?” Simmons wanted to know.

 

Prentiss solved that mystery for him, “He’s got the Director’s ear, Matt. Mayhew’s on a number of influential committees that oversee various pecuniary matters, including the FBI.”

 

“And he called her _Linda._ Think anything of that?” Alvez wondered aloud.

 

“He told _Linda_ he wanted to see her in his office first thing tomorrow,” Rossi recalled aloud, with just the faintest tone of glee in his voice. “Think I’d love to be a fly on the wall of _that_ office tomorrow morning.”

 

As they all reacted to Rossi’s mirth, they were interrupted by the sounds of eight cellphones going off simultaneously. The team members all looked at one another in surprise as they each consulted their phones.

 

All eight of them bore the same text message. ‘ _Thank you all for a job well done despite the difficulties encountered. More to come.’_

“What the—?” JJ exclaimed, “It’s from the Director!”

 

“I got the same message!” Garcia intoned, as a chorus of similar reactions came from the other BAU members.

 

“Think _more to come_ means disciplinary measures?” Alvez asked in a concerned voice.

 

Rossi made a face. “Disciplinary? Hell, no. _Commendations,_ if you ask me.”

 

“It’s probably just an indication that the Director will follow up with more news later,” Prentiss soothed. “I’ll let you all know if I hear further from him.”

 

“I think it _should_ be disciplinary measures for _Barnes,”_ Garcia said in an uncharacteristically unkind manner.

 

“Penelope?” Reid’s voice rose in surprise.

 

“Think about it guys. She tore us apart. Ruined our lives for fourteen days. Not to mention _she_ is the reason twenty-six people couldn’t be saved.” She paused to let a moment of sadness pass by her and then let her anger resurface. “I think she should be busted down to parking lot attendant or something.”

 

“I don’t want her anywhere near my car!” JJ protested, “She can serve food in the cafeteria downstairs.”

 

“Hey, we have our own kitchen of course, but we don’t want our colleagues poisoned,” Rossi interjected.

 

“Good point,” Simmons acknowledged. “Let her clean the public restrooms,” he suggested helpfully.

 

“No,” Reid shook his head slowly. “I think she should go on a fourteen day tour, explaining to the families of those twenty-six people just why she put her _Optics_ ahead of searching and apprehending the killers of their family members.” He sighed heavily and looked around the table as the sober faces of his teammates acknowledged agreement with his suggestion. “And _then_ she can park cars, serve food and clean restrooms.”

 

 ********************************************************* 

“ ** _She’s a ginormous douche canoe_** _”-_ Kim Rhodes

 **********************************************************


End file.
